Business Insight Centrica
Centrica is on track to hit its full-year cash flow and earnings targets when the utility reports annual results in February 2020, writes Ed Clowes.
The year has been a challenging one for the British Gas owner, with Centrica chief executive Iain Conn announcing in July that he would step down in 2020.
Mr Conn, who has been criticised by shareholders over the poor financial performance of Centrica, said he expected to announce further job cuts with the company’s full-year results in February. In 2018, the company announced 4,000 job cuts by 2020, responding to a dramatic decline in its fortunes: Centrica lost about 750,000 customers last year, and has warned its profits will likely be slashed by £300m as a result of the Government’s price cap on energy.
As part of Mr Conn’s turnaround strategy, Centrica has embarked on a £500m programme to sell assets such as power plants, that are not essential to the business.
The company yesterday announced it would be selling its King’s Lynn power station to German energy giant RWE Generation for £105m as part of that divestment strategy.